The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected five Caltech community members as academy fellows. They are faculty members Michael B. Elowitz, professor of biology and bioengineering and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Mory Gharib (PhD '83), Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering, director of the Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences, and vice provost; and Linda C. Hsieh-Wilson, professor of chemistry; and Caltech trustees James Rothenberg and Maria Hummer-Tuttle. The American Academy is one of the nation's oldest honorary societies. Members are accomplished scholars and leaders representing diverse fields including academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts.

Michael B. Elowitz was noted for his work that "helped to initiate synthetic biology." Elowitz studies genetic circuits—interacting genes and proteins that enable cells to sense environmental conditions and to communicate. He and his group build simplified synthetic genetic circuits and study their effects in bacteria, yeast, and mammalian cells. He has received numerous honors in recognition of his work, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007.
 

Mory Gharib and his group use nature's own design principles—apparent in fins, wings, blood vessels, and more—as inspiration for a myriad of inventions. They have studied fluid flows inside the zebrafish heart to develop efficient micropumps and more efficient artificial heart valves, and cactus spine to develop arrays of nanoneedles, based on carbon nanotubes, for painless drug delivery. Gharib holds nearly 100 patents, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2015.

Linda C. Hsieh-Wilson was noted for her pioneering work in the new fields of chemical glycobiology and chemical neurobiology. Her work combines organic chemistry and neurobiology in order to understand how carbohydrates contribute to fundamental brain processes such as cell growth and neuronal communication, neural development, and memory at the molecular level. She and her group discovered a means for suppressing tumor-cell growth by blocking the attachment of certain sugars to proteins, restricting delivery of certain carbohydrates to proteins within the tumor.

Maria Hummer-Tuttle, a lawyer, was a partner and chair of the management committee and co–managing partner of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips in Los Angeles. She currently serves on the boards of Caltech, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the W. M. Keck Foundation, the Suu Foundation, and the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies. Hummer-Tuttle is president of the Hummer Tuttle Foundation, serves on the advisory board of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School as well as on the program advisory committee of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, and is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Getty Conservation Institute Council.

Jim Rothenberg is chairman of the Capital Group Companies, Inc. In addition to his service on the Caltech board, he serves on the boards of Capital Research and Management Company, the Capital Group Companies, Inc., and American Funds Distributors, Inc. In addition, he is a portfolio counselor for the Growth Fund of America, as well as vice chairman of the Growth Fund of America and Fundamental Investors. A chartered financial analyst, he was named to the Harvard Corporation as the treasurer of Harvard University in 2004. He also serves as a director of Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.

Elowitz, Gharib, and Hsieh-Wilson join 83 current Caltech faculty as members of the American Academy. Also included in this year's list are five alumni: Robert Cohen (MS '70, PhD '72), St. Laurent Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and codirector of the DuPont-MIT Alliance; Alexei Filippenko (PhD '84), professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley; Katherine Hayles (MS '69), professor of literature at Duke University; Michael Snyder (PhD'83), professor and chair of genetics at Stanford University; and Donald Truhlar (PhD '70), professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota.

Founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other scholar-patriots, the academy aims to serve the nation by cultivating "every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people." The academy has elected as fellows and foreign honorary members "leading thinkers and doers" from each generation, including George Washington and Ben Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Woodrow Wilson in the 20th.

A full list of new members is available on the academy website at https://www.amacad.org/content/members/members.aspx.

The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 10, 2015, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

John H. ("Jack") Richards, professor of organic chemistry and biochemistry, passed away on Thursday, April 23, 2015. He was 85 years old.

Richards studied the mechanisms by which proteins function—how proteins act as catalysts to perform the chemical reactions necessary to life, including the proteins that endow some microorganisms with antibiotic resistance; how proteins transport the electrons that are the cell's energy currency, especially a class of copper-containing proteins called azurins that power certain types of bacteria; and how proteins interact with nucleic acids in order to manage the cell's activities.  

Richards earned a BA from UC Berkeley in 1951; a BSc from the University of Oxford, England, in 1953; and a PhD from Berkeley in 1955. He joined Caltech as an assistant professor of organic chemistry in 1957. He was promoted to associate professor in 1961 and to professor in 1970. He was named a professor of organic chemistry and biochemistry in 1999.

A full obituary will be posted at a later date.

John H. ("Jack") Richards, a professor of organic chemistry and biochemistry at Caltech whose research was focused on gaining a molecular understanding of the mechanisms of protein function, passed away on Thursday, April 23, 2015. He was 85 years old.

Richards used altered proteins obtained from the deliberate mutation of DNA—a process called site-directed mutagenesis—in combination with recombinant and cloning techniques, as well as chemically synthesized polypeptides (chains of amino acids) and their derivatives, to study the mechanisms by which proteins act as catalysts to perform the chemical reactions necessary to life. Among the proteins of particular interest to Richards were proteolytic enzymes that break apart other proteins; enzymes called lactamases that endow some microorganisms with antibiotic resistance; and DNA polymerases, the enzymes that build DNA molecules by assembling nucleotides.

Richards also worked in collaboration with Harry Gray, the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry, and Jay Winkler, member of the Beckman Institute and faculty associate in chemistry, examining how proteins transport the electrons that are the cell's energy currency, including a class of copper-containing proteins called azurins that power certain types of bacteria. As Gray recalls, "Jack, Jay Winkler, and I worked closely together for over 25 years. He was the perfect collaborator, generous with his time. He taught Jay and me and our students the biology we needed to attack problems in biological inorganic chemistry. His work on engineering blue copper proteins opened the way for experiments in the Beckman Institute Laser Resource Center that shed light on the factors that control electron flow in respiration and photosynthesis."

According to colleague Douglas Rees, the Roscoe Gilkey Dickinson Professor of Chemistry at Caltech and an investigator with Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Richards was a "visionary" who helped drive the integration of chemistry and biology at the heart of contemporary biochemistry.

"What most struck me about Jack is he had this real style," Rees recalls. "He wasn't the sort of guy who was just going to crank through and try to wear some problem down. He liked coming up with a really clever, elegant solution to a problem. And early on, at a time when I think a lot of chemists were typically not very interested in biological problems, Jack had this fascination with biology and chemical mechanisms. He appreciated how the future of biology was rooted in chemistry, and he was the leader of the modern era of biochemistry in the chemistry division here."

Richards was born on March 13, 1930, in Berkeley, California, and earned a BA from UC Berkeley in 1951. As a Rhodes Scholar, he traveled to England to attend the University of Oxford, from which he obtained a BSc in 1953. He then returned to UC Berkeley for his graduate studies, earning a PhD in 1955.

After two years as an instructor at Harvard University, Richards came to Caltech in 1957 as an assistant professor. He spent the rest of his career at the Institute, with promotions to associate professor in 1961 and to professor in 1970. He was named a professor of organic chemistry and biochemistry in 1999. Richards was the chair of the faculty from 1991 to 1993. 

"Jack Richards was part of the fabric of Caltech and interdisciplinary science for more than 50 years," says Jacqueline K. Barton, the Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor and chair of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

Over his career, Richards also served in a number of corporate and governmental advisory roles, including as a member of the board of the Huntington Medical Research Institute since 1999 and as a member of the Department of Energy's Basic Energy Science Advisory Committee (2001–13).

From 1985 to 2007, Richards was a corporate scientific adviser to the biotechnology company Applied Biosystems, now a part of Life Technologies. Applied Biosystems was the first company to commercially produce an automated DNA sequencing instrument—technology that was pioneered at Caltech by Leroy Hood (BS '60, PhD '68).

Richards also embraced his role as an educator and acted as a mentor to generations of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to faculty, during his nearly six decades at Caltech. "He really liked being with students and was stimulated by that interaction," Rees recalls. "He was able to teach up to the very end. I think that meant a lot to him."

"Jack was a co-advisor for my thesis work and an incredible mentor. He joyously encouraged and supported risk taking and strongly influenced my entry into the protein engineering field," says Stephen Mayo (PhD '88), Caltech's William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering and Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry. "Jack's advice and mentorship didn't stop after I completed my degree. He was a great sounding board for discussing research directions, and he provided incredibly clear career advice that was often delivered with humorous anecdotes that made our sometimes intense discussions easier. I owe Jack a great deal and will miss him as a mentor and colleague but, most importantly, as a friend."

"It's hard to imagine the sort of changes that you would see in this, in any place, over 58 years," Rees adds. "It's a long baseline. But he liked brainstorming about new ideas and technologies. He was a key part of the biochemistry subgroup. If we were grappling with some issue and trying to figure out what the most prudent course of action was, he would often look at it from his unique perspective, and we would say, you know, that's right. He could really unite us. He leaves a hole."

Richards is survived by his second wife, Minnie McMillan, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and professor of neurology at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. Richards also leaves behind four daughters from his first marriage (to Marian King), Kathleen Fraga of Grass Valley, California; Jennifer Welton of Belgrade, Montana; Julia Hart of Clayton, California; and Cynthia Clapp of Corvallis, Oregon; and four grandchildren.

He will be buried in Nevada City, California, where his grandfather and favorite uncle lived.

Through three gifts to Caltech's Division of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS), investor and philanthropist Foster Stanback and his wife, Coco, aim to help the Institute advance innovation in space exploration, with the attendant benefits of an educated workforce, skilled jobs, and spinoff technologies.

The suite of gifts totals $7.8 million: $3 million to create an endowment for space innovation, $3 million for a fund that will support four graduate student fellowships, and $1.8 million to launch a new outreach program.

According to Foster Stanback, these contributions represent "the equivalent of what investing in big sailing ships was many years ago." He explains: "When Portugal made those investments and Vasco de Gama rounded the coast of Africa with that first load of pepper from India, the world changed.

"There are opportunities waiting out there that are going to advance civilization. We've got to do the hard work, the science, in order to make that possible. It's not going to be as easy as building ships out of wood, but Caltech has the people who can do this, working with nanotechnology and advanced materials science, new propulsion systems, atomic energy, and more."

Caltech President Thomas Rosenbaum, holder of the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and a professor of physics, anticipates that the impact of the Stanbacks' gifts will be substantial.

"Foster and Coco's insightful philanthropy is empowering Caltech to make world-changing discoveries," he says, noting that the Stanbacks have advanced an array of Institute priorities with more than $24 million in support over the past decade. "Through this new gift to EAS, they are positioning the Institute to attract the most outstanding scholars and to educate future generations of leaders, on campus and off. We are deeply grateful for their remarkable vision."

Stanback was inspired to make the gifts after participating in the inaugural meeting of Caltech's Space Innovation Council in April 2014. The group, chaired by filmmaker James Cameron and Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor of electrical engineering and planetary science at Caltech, aims to advance space science and promote technological creativity.

Stanback established the space innovation fund to help novel technical projects get off the ground. One example: electrically powered aircraft that can be recharged in flight by energy beamed from space. "This sounds like not just science fiction, but crazy science fiction," Stanback says, "but they're working on it!"

Says Ares Rosakis, holder of the Otis Booth Leadership Chair in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science and Caltech's Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering: "The Stanback gifts contribute vitally to the EAS strategy of attracting the best faculty and students, then giving them the resources, acknowledgement, and support to shine. For space engineering, these gifts will allow us to perpetually fund bold seed projects—many of which will lead to spectacular inventions and technologies."

The innovation fund will give EAS additional resources to do just that, and the new fellowships will strengthen the division's ability to offer financial assistance to top graduate students.

"Fellowships are dear to my heart," says Ravi Ravichandran, the John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and a professor of mechanical engineering. Ravichandran directs the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at Caltech (GALCIT), which will be the primary program to benefit from the new fellowships.

"We want to produce critical thinkers who can transform academia and industry, and define future directions in aerospace," Ravichandran adds. "For the nation to continue to provide leadership in this area, we need to train extraordinary people. The new fellowships will help us attract the best people in the world."

The outreach program will engage these extraordinary young scientists in training the next-generation workforce. Caltech will collaborate with a network of community colleges to identify students from disadvantaged backgrounds who have high technical aptitude and interest. These young people will team up with GALCIT students who will mentor them and teach them topics in aerospace engineering. Stanback envisions this program inspiring students from community colleges to pursue education and careers in aerospace.

For his part, Ravichandran is excited to offer GALCIT students systematic opportunities for outreach. "This will make them better able to teach, to convey the excitement of aerospace, and to work in teams," he says.

Teamwork is already a strength for Caltech, in Stanback's view. "Caltech has something unique—I think there's a community and a culture that leads to interaction and sharing of ideas. The students have an idea and they share it with the professor, and oftentimes the professor says, 'Well, let's do it.' Then the administration says, 'Well, let's figure out how to support this.' Everyone is working together to support the mission."

 "Caltech is a place where the sky is the limit," Ravichandran explains. "When we recruit students, what I tell them is that this is the place where you can imagine anything and you can do anything. Coco and Foster Stanback's transformative gifts will certainly help us in achieving this."

On June 4, the 60th Annual Caltech Staff Service Awards will celebrate 247 staff members for their "on-the-job excellence and commitment to Caltech." The awards are presented in recognition of length of service, starting at the 10-year mark. The employees recognized this year have reached milestones of service ranging from 10 to 45 years. They have collectively served Caltech and its community for a total of 4,490 years.

"The Staff Service Awards is a special time when Caltech staff members are recognized and thanked for their passion for and dedication to the Institute," says Julia McCallin, associate vice president for human resources. "We honor them and their families in this annual ceremony for helping make Caltech the world's premier research and educational institution."

Hear what it's like to work at Caltech from some of this year's honored employees.

In addition, one staff member will receive the annual Thomas W. Schmitt Annual Staff Prize, presented to an individual "whose contributions embody the values and spirit that enables the Institute to achieve excellence in research and education." The prize is selected from community nominations by a committee of faculty and staff members.

The awards will be given at a ceremony in Beckman Auditorium beginning at 10 a.m., with a reception in Dabney Lounge and Garden to follow.

The 60th Annual Staff Service Awards will be presented in Beckman Auditorium on Thursday, June 4, at 10 a.m. During the ceremony, nearly 250 staff members whose service ranges from 10 to 45 years will be honored for their commitment to Caltech. A full list of awardees is online.

Among the honorees is Robert A. Taylor, who has worked at the Institute for the last 45 years, most recently in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA) for the Laser Interferometry Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project. We spoke with Taylor about his four-and-a-half decades at Caltech.

Can you tell us how you originally came to Caltech and a little about your career?

In 1969, I was attending Pasadena City College, majoring in electronics analysis. I came to class one evening and my instructor, who was the chief engineer for the Seismology Laboratory at Caltech, asked if I would like to work for Caltech. I said yes. The job was in the Division of Geology and Planetary Sciences with Dr. Anderson [Don L. Anderson, the late Eleanor and John R. McMillan Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, and former director of the Seismology Lab] to help build the seismometer that was to go to the moon.

In GPS, I enjoyed working with the students on their thesis projects and on other projects that have come along over the years. Some of those projects have taken me to places that most people never get to go. I observed an atomic bomb detonation in Nevada, serviced a seismic station at the base of the Andes Mountains in Peru, and dove on coral reefs off Sumatra, Indonesia. In the deserts of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, I did experiments with the first rocks brought back from the moon. That is just the first half of my time here at Caltech.

The second half is still ongoing. In 2001, I transferred to PMA, to continue my journey with LIGO, running the ultrahigh-vacuum bake lab. The purpose is to clean the parts that go into the vacuum envelope of the interferometer. LIGO is by far the most interesting project I have worked on since I have been here at Caltech.

What were your first impressions of Caltech?

Quite frankly, I was a bit intimidated at first. I had never worked in an academic atmosphere before with the kind of prestigious people that I come in contact with on a daily basis. For example, the first office that I had was across the hall from Dr. Charles F. Richter [developer of the Gutenberg-Richter law for measuring the size of an earthquake]. Could that be more awesome? But I soon realized that the people around me were accepting me as part of the team at Caltech.

What has been the most exciting moment for you so far at Caltech?

There are two moments that stick in my mind. The first is the research that we did in Indonesia with Dr. Sieh [Kerry Sieh, formerly Caltech's Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology], taking coral samples from reefs in the Batu Islands off Sumatra. The other was the first time I visited the LIGO Livingston Observatory and saw firsthand a full-size interferometer.

What has changed the most for you here over the last 45 years?

I think what has changed most is my idea of what is possible. At Caltech, the possibilities are limitless.

How much longer do you think you will stay?

Let's just put it this way: I love what I do. I feel like the luckiest person alive to have been invited to participate and be a part of Caltech.

Ruben Carmona, a grill station cook in Caltech's Chandler Cafeteria, is the winner of the 2015 Schmitt Prize. The prize is awarded annually to Caltech staff members who embody the values and spirit of the Institute through their work, directly or indirectly supporting its research and teaching mission through the professionalism and commitment they bring to their jobs.

Carmona has been a Caltech employee since 2001, working in culinary services both on campus and at JPL. He began his career at Chandler Cafeteria, moving to JPL's Café 167 in 2002, where he worked for four years before returning to campus in 2006.

"I have been here almost 15 years, and I love it," Carmona said. "Working at Caltech, I feel like I am part of a family. When I see that smile from my customers—students, faculty, staff—it's a reward for me."

Carmona was nominated by an anonymous member of the Caltech community who testified to his dedication to his work as well as his grace under pressure, writing, "I challenge anyone to name another person on campus who, day in and day out, approaches his or her job with more enthusiasm, pride, and attention to detail than Ruben. No matter how colossal the crowd of hungry students, faculty members, and staff clustered around his station is, Ruben prepares each and every delicious meal with unmatched speed and professional skill."

The nominator also cited Carmona's unwavering good humor, attesting that "he is never anything but calm and courteous, no matter how chaotic it gets (and we all know how hectic the noon hour in Chandler can be). Even on the craziest days, Ruben will cheerfully go out of his way to accommodate a special request."

The prize was presented to Carmona on June 4 during the 60th annual Staff Service Awards, which honored staff members who have worked at Caltech for periods ranging from 10 to 45 years.

Carmona recalls his reaction to hearing his name called as the winner. "It was shocking," he says. "I'm still surprised; I can't believe it. I got a letter last week, and I knew I was nominated, and just knowing that was exciting for me. …This is incredible. Thank you. Thank you, everybody."

Senior director of dining services Jonathan Webster, who is Carmona's supervisor, noted that the dining services team was very excited about Carmona's honor.

"We are very grateful to have an employee as dedicated as Ruben on our staff," says Webster. "He has been a fixture at the Chandler grill station for over 15 years. One thing to note about the grill station is the constant heat: constant orders coming in, hot equipment all around, and hungry people waiting for their food. Ruben still has time to greet everyone cordially, chat with his regulars, and know his customers''regular' orders."

The Schmitt Prize was established in 2007 through the initiative of Thomas W. Schmitt, former associate vice president for human resources. Schmitt proposed the idea of a staff prize to senior administrators, and it was eventually funded by Ted Jenkins, Caltech alumnus (BS '65, MS '66) and trustee, who spent his professional career in the semiconductor industry. All staff members are eligible for this award and are nominated by members of the Caltech community.

James F. Rothenberg, chairman of the Los Angeles–based Capital Group Companies, Inc. and Caltech trustee, died suddenly of a heart attack on Tuesday, July 21, 2015. He was 69.

As chairman of the Capital Group, where he held leadership positions since 1970, Rothenberg oversaw the firm's rise to what would become the largest stock mutual fund in the world. He also served on several corporate boards, including those of Capital Research and Management Company and American Funds Distributors, Inc., and he was a portfolio counselor for the Growth Fund of America and vice chairman of the Growth Fund of America and Fundamental Investors.

Rothenberg was elected to the Caltech Board of Trustees in 2006. He chaired the board's Business and Finance Committee, served as vice chair of the Development Committee, and was a member of the Investment Committee. He has played a key role in the life of the Institute as campaign co-chair and as a member of the Caltech Associates.

"Jim understood, at a deeply personal level, how important it is to be involved in the life of an institution. He was a trustee, benefactor, and friend to Caltech, and the Institute is better for it," says David L. Lee (PhD '74), chair of the Caltech Board of Trustees. "Jim was also a wonderful colleague and mentor to many; we will all miss him very much."

In March, Rothenberg and his wife, Anne, donated $15 million to Caltech to endow graduate student fellowships and support research innovation through the Caltech Innovation Initiative (CI²).

At the time, Rothenberg described the couple's gift to Caltech as an effective way to invest in the country's future. "I think that over time there are two drivers of the U.S. economy other than natural resources: education—an educated labor force, an educated populace—and innovation," he said. "As a country, we seem to do better at that than most places in the world. From my perspective, anything I can do to help spur that kind of activity at Caltech makes perfect sense."

"Jim Rothenberg's wise counsel and generosity of spirit, combined with his and Anne's devotion to learning, enriched the Caltech community beyond measure," says Thomas F. Rosenbaum, Caltech's president. "Jim was so vibrant and full of life and involved in so many important endeavors that it seems inconceivable that he is gone."

"It gives you a different feeling when the rover lands on Mars," Rothenberg recently said of his generous support to the Institute and its mission. "Listening to someone who is going to spend the next six, eight years working on the next mission—it's fascinating to think about. I want to be a part of keeping Caltech a vibrant and vital place."

Rothenberg was born on July 16, 1946 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A two-time Harvard alumnus (he received a BA in English in 1968 and an MBA, with distinction, in 1970), he played a prominent role at his alma mater. He served as a member of the Harvard Corporation, the University's highest governing body; as an adviser to Harvard presidents; and as the University's treasurer from 2004 to 2014. He was the chair of the Harvard Management Company, the subsidiary that manages Harvard's endowment, from 2004 until his death. Rothenberg was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences earlier this year.

Beyond Caltech and Harvard, Rothenberg served with a wide variety of nonprofits, including as director of the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena and on the boards of KCET, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the RAND Corporation. He was a governor of the National Association of Securities Dealers from 1996 to 2002 and a member of the board of directors of NASDAQ from 1996 to 1999.

Rothenberg is survived by his wife, Anne F. Rothenberg; their three children, Catherine Rothenberg Wei, Erin Rothenberg Baker, and Daniel H. Rothenberg; and six grandchildren.

Trustees Gordon (PhD '54) and Betty Moore have pledged $100 million to Caltech, the second-largest single contribution in the Institute's history. With this gift, they have created a permanent endowment and entrusted the choice of how to direct the funds to the Institute's leadership—providing lasting resources coupled with uncommon freedom.

"Those within the Institute have a much better view of what the highest priorities are than we could have," Intel Corporation cofounder Gordon Moore explains. "We'd rather turn the job of deciding where to use resources over to Caltech than try to dictate it from outside."

Applying the Moores' donation in a way that will strengthen the Institute for generations to come, Caltech's president and provost have decided to dedicate the funds to fellowships for graduate students.

"Gordon and Betty Moore's incredibly generous gift will have a transformative effect on Caltech," says President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, holder of the Institute's Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "Our ultimate goal is to provide fellowships for every graduate student at Caltech, to free these remarkable young scholars to pursue their interests wherever they may lead, independent of the vicissitudes of federal funding. The fellowships created by the Moores' gift will help make the Institute the destination of choice for the most original and creative scholars, students and faculty members alike."

Further multiplying the impact of the Moores' contribution, the Institute has established a program that will inspire others to contribute as well. The Gordon and Betty Moore Graduate Fellowship Match will provide one additional dollar for every two dollars pledged to endow Institute-wide fellowships. In this way, the Moores' $100 million commitment will increase fellowship support for Caltech by a total of $300 million.

Says Provost Edward M. Stolper, the Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair and William E. Leonhard Professor of Geology: "Investigators across campus work with outstanding graduate students to advance discovery and to train the next generation of teachers and researchers. By supporting these students, the Moore Match will stimulate creativity and excellence in perpetuity all across Caltech. We are grateful to Gordon and Betty for allowing us the flexibility to devote their gift to this crucial priority."

The Moores describe Caltech as a one-of-a-kind institution in its ability to train budding scientists and engineers and conduct high-risk research with world-changing results—and they are committed to helping the Institute maintain that ability far into the future.

"We appreciate being able to support the best science," Gordon Moore says, "and that's something that supporting Caltech lets us do."

The couple's extraordinary philanthropy already has motivated other benefactors to follow their example, notes David L. Lee, chair of the Caltech Board of Trustees.

"The decision that Gordon and Betty made—to give such a remarkable gift, to make it perpetual through an endowment, and to remove any restrictions as to how it can be used—creates a tremendous ripple effect," Lee says. "Others have seen the Moores' confidence in Caltech and have made commitments of their own. We thank the Moores for their leadership."

The Moores consider their gift a high-leverage way of fostering scientific research at a place that is close to their hearts. Before he went on to cofound Intel, Gordon Moore earned a PhD in chemistry from Caltech.

"It's been a long-term association that has served me well," he says.

Joining him in Pasadena just a day after the two were married, Betty Moore became active in the campus community as well. A graduate of San Jose State College's journalism program, she secured a job at the Ford Foundation's new Pasadena headquarters and also made time to come to campus to participate in community activities, including the Chem Wives social club.

"We started out at Caltech," she recalls. "I had a feeling that it was home away from home. It gives you a down-home feeling when you're young and just taking off from family. You need that connection somehow."

After earning his PhD from Caltech in 1954, Gordon Moore took a position conducting basic research at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. Fourteen years and two jobs later, he and his colleague Robert Noyce cofounded Intel Corp. Moore served as executive vice president of the company until 1975, when he took the helm. Under his leadership—as chief executive officer (1975 to 1987) and chairman of the board (1987 to 1997)—Intel grew from a Mountain View-based startup to a giant of Silicon Valley, worth more than $140 billion today.

Moore is widely known for "Moore's Law," his 1965 prediction that the number of transistors that can fit on a chip would double every year. Still relevant 50 years later, this principle pushed Moore and his company—and the tech industry as a whole—to produce continually more powerful and cheaper semiconductor chips.

Gordon Moore joined the Caltech Board of Trustees in 1983 and served as chair from 1993 to 2000. That same year, he and his wife established the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, an organization dedicated to creating positive outcomes for future generations in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world.

Among numerous other honors, Gordon Moore is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a recipient of the National Medal of Technology and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

The Gordon and Betty Moore Graduate Fellowship Match is available for new gifts and pledges to endow graduate fellowships. For more information about the match and how to support graduate education at Caltech, please contact Jon Paparsenos, executive director of development, at (626) 395-3088 or jpapars@caltech.edu.

Claudia Alexander, a longtime employee of JPL, died July 11 of cancer at the age of 56. She was the U.S. project scientist for the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which continues to explore comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and was the last project manager for the Cassini mission to Saturn. She also worked on the Galileo mission to Jupiter.

In addition to her career on JPL's technical staff, Alexander advocated for STEM activities and for the empowerment of young women preparing for careers in science. She was also a book author, having written a number of children's and popular science books.

Alexander received a bachelor's degree in geophysics at UC Berkeley, a master's degree in geophysics and space physics at UCLA, and a doctorate in atmospheric, oceanic, and space sciences from the University of Michigan. She was named University of Michigan's Woman of the Year in Human Relations in 1993 and was a member of the American Geophysical Union.

Jim Green, the director of NASA's planetary sciences division, said, "The passing of Claudia Alexander reminds us of how fragile we are as humans but also as scientists how lucky we are to be part of planetary science. ... [S]he was an absolute delight to be with and always had a huge engaging smile when I saw her. It was easy to see that she loved what she was doing. We lost a fantastic colleague and great friend. I will miss her." 

Speaking to a NASA interviewer a few years ago, Alexander had a message for young people considering a career in science: "Science and math are fascinating and fundamental. They require as much discipline to study and master as an athlete working to be a football player, or a musician attempting to land a recording contract. Hours and hours of practice go into the mastery of the field. But the rewards are just as terrific! Imagine being the first person to make a discovery, to have a mathematical principle named after you, or to make the fundamental discoveries that take civilization to the next level? In the annals of history the athletes and musicians fade, but the ones who make fundamental improvements in humankind's way of life, and in their understanding of the universe, live on in their discoveries."

In her spare time, Alexander enjoyed traveling, writing, and loved horseback riding. She identified Carl Sagan, John F. Kennedy, and Johannes Kepler as major influences in her life.

This week, CaltechAUTHORS—the Institute's repository for research publications authored by Caltech faculty and other researchers—reached a landmark 50,000 entries since the archive launched in 2001. Professor of Physics Chris Martin's recent work, a paper titled "A giant protogalactic disk linked to the cosmic web," was the 50,000th entry.

CaltechAUTHORS now has more content than those of almost all other U.S. universities, including Harvard University, Duke University, and Washington University in Saint Louis. More than six million documents have been downloaded from the Caltech repository since the library began recording download totals in July 2008, shortly before the Faculty Board requested the library to document the Institute's output starting in March 2009.

"The six million downloads in just over seven years is a significant figure in the academic community, as is the 50,000 records," says engineering librarian George Porter. "Six million downloads is not the largest number of downloads for an institutional repository, but it compares favorably with many other institutions that are much, much larger than Caltech."

The large number of articles in the repository results from a collaboration between the faculty and the Caltech Library. Embracing the importance of the repository and its role in increasing the accessibility of scientific research, the faculty cooperates with the library to submit published papers and voted in 2013 to approve an Institute-wide open-access policy. Seventy-three percent of all materials in the repository are now open access.

In addition to facilitating new deposits, the library is also working to add capabilities to the repository that would be useful to researchers—such as storing other research materials and data sets in addition to publications.

"The digital repository is one of the many ways that the library is looking to preserve Caltech research materials for the long term and to increase the accessibility of Caltech research to a broader audience," Porter says.

Charles A. Barnes, professor of physics, emeritus, at Caltech and an expert in the study of both the weak nuclear force—one of the fundamental forces of nature—and of the nuclear reactions that produce the majority of the elements in our universe, passed away on Friday, August 14, 2015. He was 93.

"Caltech was the place at which nuclear astrophysics was invented, and Charlie made many fundamental contributions in this field," says Fiona Harrison, the Kent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair of Caltech's Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy and Benjamin Rosen Professor of Physics.

Born on December 12, 1921, in Toronto, Canada, Barnes received his bachelor of arts degree in physics and mathematics from McMaster University in 1943 and his master of arts degree in physics from the University of Toronto in 1944. He earned a doctorate in physics from the University of Cambridge in 1950. He came to Caltech as a research fellow in 1953 and became a senior research fellow in 1954, an associate professor in 1958, and a professor in 1962. Barnes retired in 1992.

Barnes was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

An experimental physicist who specialized in nuclear physics, Barnes performed pioneering research in two key areas. The first was in the study of the so-called nuclear weak force, which governs the radioactive decay of elements and is responsible for the fusion of protons to form deuterium. This fusion releases the energy that is the source of heat from our sun and other stars.

During the 1960s and 70s, in experiments using the particle accelerators in the basements of Caltech's Kellogg Radiation Laboratory and Alfred P. Sloan Laboratory of Mathematics and Physics, Barnes studied the breakdown of "mirror symmetry" in the weak force, the phenomenon that causes an experiment and its mirror experiment to give different results. "This is a surprising and novel feature of the weak nuclear force," says Caltech professor of physics Bradley W. Filippone.

Barnes was also an expert in nucleosynthesis, the formation of new atomic nuclei from simpler ones, a process that occurs on a cosmic scale in the cores of stars.  

"He is probably best known for his nucleosynthesis studies of the nuclear reaction that produces oxygen from carbon and helium," says Filippone. In 1974, Barnes and his student Peggy Dyer (PhD '73) performed the first careful measurement of this reaction. Over the next two decades, in collaboration with Filippone and others, Barnes improved upon the measurement; their work culminated in a precision measurement at TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, in 1993. This reaction rate was called "a problem of paramount importance" by Caltech's William A. Fowler, co-winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research into the creation of chemical elements inside stars, in his Nobel address. Through his work, Barnes provided critical input in determining the final distribution of the chemical elements produced in stars—and whether the final fate of a star is to become a black hole or some other celestial object, such as a neutron star.

In addition to his scientific achievements, Barnes will be remembered fondly for his support of young scientists. "He was a superb mentor to young scientists—including me—providing encouragement, enthusiasm, and great ideas to a generation of nuclear physicists studying both the weak nuclear force as well as nuclear reactions that occur in stars," says Filippone.

"Charlie was still active when I came to Caltech, and I remember conversations with him about signatures we could look for to identify how rare chemical elements are manufactured in the universe," Harrison says.

"Charlie was a wonderful person, scientist, and collaborator," says George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry Nate Lewis (BS '77, MS '77), who worked with Barnes during the late 1980s. "He was thorough, scholarly, and curious, and a shining example of the best qualities in a long tradition of truly world-class experimental nuclear physicists at Caltech."

Barnes was predeceased by his wife of six decades, Phyllis, who passed away on August 12, 2013. He is survived by his son, Steven Barnes, and his daughter, Nancy Wetherow; by four grandchildren; and by two great-grandchildren.

Eric Harris Davidson, Caltech's Norman Chandler Professor of Cell Biology, passed away on Tuesday, September 1, 2015. He was 78 years old.

Davidson, a developmental biologist, was a pioneer researcher and theorist of the gene regulatory networks that perform complex biological processes, such as the transformation of a single-celled egg into a complex organism. His work helped to reveal how the DNA sequences inherited in the genome are used to initiate and drive forward the sequence of steps that result in development.

His research emphasized quantitative understanding of biological mechanisms and the logic functions encoded in genetic networks, and focused on the question of how the genomic DNA could encode not only protein sequences but also the complex "software" needed for differentiating cell types in the right places and proportions to make complex animals.

Davidson initially focused on quantitative methods for analyzing genome functions. In 1969, he and his longtime colleague, molecular biophysicist Roy Britten, published the first model of a gene regulatory network, a web of interacting regulatory genes. This network included both regulatory DNA sequences—segments of DNA at each gene that set the conditions for when and where that gene will be turned on or off—and genes that code for molecules that bind to the regulatory DNA of other genes to turn them on or off. These gene regulatory networks have since been shown experimentally to control the process of development.

In 1971, Britten and Davidson published a landmark paper concluding that the evolution of an animal's body plan depends on changes in how genes are regulated during development. This concept was the foundation for the field of evolutionary developmental biology.

For the last forty years, Davidson's work centered on the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, whose range includes the waters off Caltech's Kerckhoff Marine Biology Laboratory in Corona del Mar, California.

Inherent in the idea of gene regulatory networks was the concept that genome sequences that provided information about how genes should be expressed would be as important as the genome sequences that coded for the proteins themselves. Although non-protein-coding DNA was long considered to be "junk," Davidson recognized that the key regulatory code resided in this genetic material. In 2006, Davidson co-led a group of 240 researchers from more than 70 institutions that sequenced the purple sea urchin's genome. In 2008, a consortium of institutions led by Davidson's lab characterized the 23,000 genes of that genome.

In parallel, the Davidson group systematically created a comprehensive functional testing strategy to detect all of the control connections between the genes involved in the key events in the earliest stages of sea urchin embryo development, and to determine how the activity of each gene affected the ability of every other gene in that part of the embryo to be expressed. The network model, first described in 2002 and elucidated and extended over the next 13 years, revealed that the regulatory networks governing high-level processes such as the formation of a specific type of cell are built from gene circuits that can have striking similarities even when the identities of the genes in the circuits are different. These circuits can be viewed as a few dozen types of modules that perform specific functions. Because similar modular systems appear to exist in flies, frogs, chicks, mice, and zebrafish, they may be a universal feature of higher organisms.

The work, Davidson noted at the time, allows scientists to tinker with and re-engineer genetic networks, a process that simulates the genetic changes that accompany the evolution of organisms in real life. "The evolution of animals is due to changes in the structure of these gene regulatory networks, so this work provides us with an opportunity to study evolution in a new and decisive way," he said.

In 2012, Davidson's laboratory devised the first complete computational model of one of those networks, consisting of about 50 genes. Each gene was modeled as an on/off switch. The initial state of each switch was set, and the model was allowed to run. The team found that the predicted final state of the network matched results in normal and genetically manipulated sea urchins, validating a powerful tool for understanding gene regulatory networks in a way not previously possible.

"Eric's early recognition that 'biological engineering' would be a powerful approach for elucidating fundamental biological principles is an excellent example of his ability to foresee important advances in science," says Stephen Mayo, the Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry and William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair for the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering.

"Eric was a great man whose work on gene regulatory networks was paradigm shifting and has had tremendous impact in multiple fields of biology," says Marianne Bronner, the Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology at Caltech. "He will be sorely missed as a colleague and friend."

Davidson was born on April 13, 1937, in New York, New York, and earned his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958 and his doctorate from Rockefeller University in 1963. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a member of the Rockefeller faculty before coming to Caltech as a visiting assistant professor of biology in 1970. He became a Caltech associate professor in 1971, a professor in 1974, and was named Chandler Professor in 1982. 

He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2011, he was awarded the International Prize for Biology by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He was also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Developmental Biology and the A.O. Kovalevsky Medal from the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists.

He authored six books, ranging from his classic 1968 monograph, Gene Activity in Early Development, to Genomic Control Processes, published this year and coauthored with Caltech research assistant professor Isabelle Peter.

Davidson had varied interests including history; American football (he played in the 1990s on Caltech's team); and the traditional music of the Appalachian Mountains, which he himself performed, playing the clawhammer banjo with the Iron Mountain String Band. 

He is survived by his daughter, Elsa Davidson Bahrampour. 

A new partnership will support translational sciences and health technology at Caltech thanks to a three-year commitment from Heritage Medical Research Institute (HMRI), a nonprofit founded and led by Caltech trustee Richard N. Merkin.

With this gift, the Institute and HMRI have created the Heritage Research Institute for the Advancement of Medicine and Science at Caltech. Eight Caltech faculty members from three academic divisions have been selected for the inaugural cohort of Heritage researchers, with a ninth yet to be named. These scientists and engineers—who will hold the title of Heritage Principal Investigators—will receive salary and research support as well as opportunities to learn from and collaborate with each other and with practicing physicians in the local community.

"Dick Merkin's insights into the changing landscape of modern medicine, his devotion to supporting young talent, and his exceptional generosity have come together to create an innovative program to advance translational research," says President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, holder of the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "The generous support of HMRI, through Dick's vision, will provide the freedom and resources for faculty from across the divisions to tackle difficult science and engineering problems for the betterment of the human condition."

As a physician and a healthcare executive, Merkin has witnessed the rapid evolution of medicine and patient care in recent decades—and says he sees monumental changes on the horizon.

"I think some of the greatest breakthroughs this century will occur in biology, and I think Caltech is particularly positioned to be a leader in this area," Merkin says. "Our biggest problems are our biggest opportunities, and Caltech is gifted in looking at the world not as it is, but as it could be."

Caltech is uniquely suited to accelerating progress due to its highly collaborative environment, Merkin adds. The convergence of multidisciplinary science and technology, he says, is driving innovation at an exponential rate, particularly in the areas of implantable sensors and precision medicine.

Many of Caltech's new Heritage Principal Investigators have already deepened our understanding of how the human body works—from the microbes in our gut to the chemicals in our brain—and are advancing the study of diseases such as diabetes, autism, and cancer. As a trustee and benefactor, Merkin has been energized by the potential impact of their investigations.

"The most imaginative scientists on the globe are concentrated at Caltech," Merkin says. "They are dedicated to understanding the world around us. Just being able to interact with so many passionate, hardworking, and brilliant people is inspiring. I'm very grateful to be part of the Institute." 

Adds Stephen Mayo, the William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering and Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry: "As a valued friend of the Institute and a physician, Richard Merkin knows that the treatments of tomorrow begin in the lab today. This gift will embolden the Heritage Principal Investigators—some of whom are in the early stages of their careers—to pursue their most promising ideas and, in turn, quicken the pace of discovery in the biosciences."

A graduate of the University of Miami, Merkin began his career as a physician before creating what is now known as Heritage Provider Network (HPN) in 1979. Merkin serves as HPN's president and chief executive officer and has overseen its growth into one of California's largest healthcare provider networks. In 2012, Fast Company magazine named HPN one of the most innovative healthcare companies for embracing techniques such as data mining and predictive modeling to better the well-being of patients and improve the nation's health care system.

Merkin's philanthropy focuses on medical research, the arts, and children, with a special emphasis on the people of Southern California. He has served on the Caltech Board of Trustees since 2007 and also sits on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and United Friends of the Children, as well as educational institutions, including the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Alliance College-Ready Public Schools. The latter runs 27 charter schools in the greater Los Angeles area, including one site named after him—the Richard Merkin Middle School. 

In 2003, Merkin founded HMRI, a nonprofit that also has supported the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. In deciding where to direct HMRI's research funds, making a pledge to Caltech made sense for Merkin.

"Watching the Institute's stewardship of resources as a trustee makes me very comfortable investing as a benefactor," Merkin says. "Supporting Caltech and its faculty and students is a much broader investment in a better future—not just for the local community, not just for the United States, but, really, for the world."

Two leaders from the world of medicine and biotechnology, David D. Ho (BS '74) and William H. Rastetter, have been elected to the Caltech Board of Trustees.

Ho, a recognized leader at the forefront of research on HIV and AIDS, is the founding scientific director and chief executive officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York and the Irene Diamond Professor at The Rockefeller University. He previously served on the Caltech Board of Trustees from 1996 until 2006. Earlier this year, he received Caltech's Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor the Institute bestows upon a graduate.

Born in Taiwan, Ho moved with his family to the United States at the age of 12. He began his undergraduate studies at MIT in 1970 but transferred to and graduated from Caltech, where he first became interested in medicine. He went on to earn his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1978 and complete his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Cedars Sinai Medical Center/UCLA School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, respectively.

Beginning in 1994, Ho conducted a series of studies using treatment data from actual patients and mathematical models and computer simulations to show how HIV operates. In contrast to what was previously thought, Ho proved that the virus continuously attacks and weakens the immune system so that other illnesses can eventually overtake the body easily. He also showed that HIV replicates and mutates incredibly quickly, allowing it to evolve its way around individual drug therapies. These discoveries led him to first devise and later champion the development of a combination antiretroviral therapy, also known as the AIDS cocktail. That therapy has resulted in unprecedented control of HIV in patients. Collectively, these accomplishments earned Ho the title of Time"Man of the Year" in 1996, among other honors.

Ho's team is now working to develop AIDS vaccines and other agents to block the spread of HIV.

Rastetter is chairman of the board for three San Diego-based biotechnology companies: Illumina, Neurocrine Biosciences, and Fate Therapeutics. He retired at the end of 2005 from Biogen Idec, a biopharmaceutical company, where he had most recently served as executive chairman.

Rastetter completed his undergraduate work at MIT, earning an SB in chemistry in 1971. He went on to earn his master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in 1972 and 1975, respectively. After that, he was a member of the faculty at MIT until 1982, when he began working in the biotechnology field at Genentech. In 1986, he joined Idec Pharmaceuticals and eventually grew it to a multibillion-dollar company while serving as chairman and CEO. While there, he helped invent Rituxan—the first monoclonal antibody approved by the U.S. FDA for the treatment of cancer. In 2003, Rastetter led Idec through the merger that formed Biogen Idec.

Rastetter is also the lead outside director on the board for Cerulean, a cancer therapeutics company; sits on the board of directors of Regulus, a company that focuses on discovering and developing micro-RNA therapeutics; and serves as an adviser to Leerink Partners, a healthcare-focused investment bank.

In addition to his work in the biotechnology field, Rastetter practices fine art photography and has been represented by the Madison Gallery in La Jolla, California.

The Board of Trustees is the governing body of Caltech. The Board is led by David L. Lee (PhD '74), chair, and vice chair Ronald K. Linde (MS '62, PhD '64), and it is currently composed of 40 trustees, 23 senior trustees, 22 life members, and one honorary life member.

For the last three years, Caltech students and staff have been lending a hand at Pasadena City College, providing free tutoring and mentoring to some of the campus's nearly 800 student veterans. This past spring, 19 Caltech community members participated. Their involvement is part of a larger volunteer program, run through PCC's Veterans Resource Center (VRC)—established in 2010 under a grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office—that provides support and guidance to the campus veterans. 

Patricia D'Orange-Martin, coordinator of the VRC, calls the Caltech cohort "the core of our tutoring/mentoring team" and credits it with providing more than 60 percent of the program's support, "particularly for veterans preparing to transfer to four-year colleges and universities." 

Urte Barker, the creator of the tutoring program, started the center with a handful of volunteers. In 2012, she decided she was ready to enlarge the group of tutors and expand academic support, especially in higher-level math and science subjects, and approached Caltech through its Center for Teaching, Learning and Outreach (CTLO) and through the Caltech Y.

The Caltech community responded enthusiastically. Some tutors are undergrads, including Dennis Lam, a junior majoring in computer science. "The veterans I've worked with are motivated, hard working, and have a clear picture of where they want to be in the next stages of their lives," Lam says. Volunteers have also come from the ranks of Caltech's graduate students, postdocs, administrators—even a postdoc's chemistry-teacher wife.

Serving veterans, says Mitch Aiken, associate director for educational outreach at CTLO, "provides our students with the chance to deliver meaningful one-on-one outreach." It also allows them to "give back, expand their own worldview, and get in some excellent real-world teaching experience," he says.

"We're looking for mentors and role models of all ages," says Barker. "Current or recent students are close enough to their own study years to remember the feeling. Older volunteers bring invaluable experience in life-skills development."

"At first, I thought I'd need to be a subject-matter expert," says volunteer Elizabeth DeClue of Caltech Purchasing Services. "But tutoring turned out to be much more about supporting the student and sharing what it takes to be successful."

The need is great, Barker says. "Society has created this huge group of people in their 20s and 30s, dropped them back in school while they're scrambling to gain traction in civilian life and told them to catch up. Some are pursuing careers that will require years of study. Others have memory or health issues." With the military's emphasis on pride and self-sufficiency, however, veterans often resist seeking help, she says. "I keep reminding them: 'What you're learning in college will become your toolbox for your career and your life. Commit to it.'"

Volunteer tutor and former JPL education coordinator Rich Alvidrez understands from personal experience the issues these vets face. "I found myself very rusty in math after I left the Air Force to begin my college education, so I can understand how difficult it is for some vets to get back after being out of school."

Lessons learned extend far beyond the textbook. "Many students' lives prior to military service lacked enrichment opportunities," Barker says. "Now they're picking up valuable life skills: time management, prioritizing school against outside interests, perspective about opportunities they'd never heard of. That's uplifting and empowering."

Although the potential demand for tutors still outstrips the supply, Barker remains optimistic. "So far, we've just been putting drops on a hot stone," she says. "We also lost some wonderful people after graduation this year. But at the Caltech Y's Community Service and Advocacy Fair in October, I met people with phenomenal amounts of heart and energy. This program creates a feeling of effectiveness and personal satisfaction that keeps our volunteers coming back."

On Wednesday, November 11, in commemoration of Veterans Day, Caltech honored its veterans with a breakfast and panel discussion held at the Athenaeum. "I'm so happy that Caltech is recognizing veterans," said Ciro Diaz, associate director of IT support services in IMSS.

The event commenced with the National Anthem sung by the Caltech chorale members in the presence of cadets from Blair High School's Junior ROTC program and color guard.

Read more and view the slideshow

On November 12 and 13, the Beckman Institute at Caltech hosted a symposium on "The Shared Legacy of Arnold Beckman and Harry Gray." The two have worked closely since the late 1960s, when Gray arrived at Caltech. In this interview, Gray provides some background.

How did you come to Caltech?

I grew up in southern Kentucky. I got my BS in chemistry in 1957, and my professors told me to go to grad school at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, to continue my studies in synthetic organic chemistry. They didn't give me a choice. Western Kentucky College had physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, and that was it.

When I got to Northwestern I met Fred Basolo, who became my mentor. He did inorganic chemistry, which I was very surprised to discover even existed as a research field. I was so excited by his work, which was studying the mechanisms of inorganic reactions, that I decided to switch fields and do what he did. I got my PhD in 1960 from work on the syntheses and reaction mechanisms of platinum, rhodium, palladium, and nickel complexes. A complex has a metal atom sitting in the middle of as many as six ions or molecules called ligands. The metal has empty orbitals that it wants to fill with paired-up electrons, and the ligands have electron pairs they aren't using, so the metal and its ligands form stable bonds.

I had gotten into chemistry in the first place because I'd always been interested in colors. Even when I was a little kid, colors fascinated me. I really wanted to understand them, and many complexes have brilliant, beautiful colors. At Northwestern I heard about crystal-field theory, which was the first attempt to explain how metal complexes got their colors. All the crystal-field theory's big shots were in Copenhagen, so I decided to go there as a postdoc. Which I did.

I soon found out that crystal-field theory didn't go far enough. It only explained the colors of a limited set of metal ions in solution, and it couldn't explain charge transfers and a lot of other things. All the atoms were treated as point charges, with no provision for the bonds between the metal and the ligands. There weren't any bonds. So I helped develop a new theory, called ligand-field theory, which put the bonds back in the complexes. Carl Ballhausen, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, and I wrote a paper on a "metal-oxo" complex in which an oxygen atom was triple-bonded to a vanadium ion. The triple bond in our theory was required to account for the blue color of the vanadium-oxo complex. We also could explain charge transfers in other oxo complexes. Bonds were back in metal complexes!

Metal-oxo bonds are very important in biology. They are crucial in a lot of reactions, such as the oxygen-producing side of photosynthesis; the metabolism of drugs by cytochrome P-450, which often leads to toxic interactions with other drugs; and respiration. When we breathe in O₂, our respiratory system splits the O=O bond, forming a metal-oxo complex as a reactive intermediate on the way to the product, which is water.

My work on bonding in metal oxo complexes got me a job as an assistant professor at Columbia University in 1961. By '65 I was a full professor and getting offers from many places, including Caltech. I loved Columbia, and I would have stayed there, but the chemistry department was very small. I knew it would be hard to build inorganic chemistry in a small department that concentrated on organic and physical chemistry.

There weren't any inorganic chemists at Caltech, either, but division chair Jack Roberts encouraged me to build the field up to five or six faculty members. I came to Caltech in 1966, and we now have a very strong inorganic chemistry group.

When I got here, I started work in two new areas at the interface of inorganic chemistry and biology. I'm best known for my work showing how electrons flow through proteins in respiration and photosynthesis. I won the Wolf Prize and the Welch Prize and the National Medal of Science for this work.

I also got into inorganic photochemistry—solar-energy research. That work started well before the first energy crisis in 1973, and continued until oil became cheap again in the early 1980s and solar-energy research was no longer supported. In the late '90s, I restarted the work. Now I'm leading an NSF Center for Chemical Innovation in Solar Fuels, which has an outreach activity I proudly call the Solar Army.

And how's that going?

The Solar Army keeps growing. We now have at least 60 brigades at high schools across the U.S., and 10 more abroad. I'd say that about 1,000 students have been through the program since 2008. We're getting young scientists involved in research that could have a profound effect on the world they're going to inherit. They're helping us look for light absorbers and catalysts to turn water into hydrogen fuel, using nothing but sunlight. The solar materials need to be sturdy metal oxides that are abundant and dirt cheap. But there are many metals in the periodic table. When you start combining them in twos and threes in varying amounts, there are literally millions of possibilities to be tested. We already have found several very good water oxidation and reduction catalysts, and since the National Science Foundation has just renewed our CCI Solar Fuels grant, we expect to make great progress in the coming years in understanding how they work.

Let's shift gears and talk about the Beckman Institute. How did you first meet Arnold Beckman [PhD '28, inventor of the pH meter, founder of Beckman Instruments, and a Life Trustee of Caltech]?

I gave a talk back in 1967, probably on Alumni Day. Arnold was the chair of Caltech's Board of Trustees at the time, and he and his wife, Mabel, were seated in the second row. When the talk was over, they came down and introduced themselves. Mabel said—and I remember this very well—she said, "Arnold, I didn't understand much of what this young man said, but I really liked the way he said it." Arnold gave me the thumbs up, and that started our relationship.

When I became chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in 1978, I asked him to be on my advisory committee. I didn't ask him for money, but I asked him for advice, and we became quite close. He said he wanted to do something for us. That led to his gift for the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Laboratory of Chemical Synthesis, as well as a gift for instrumentation.

He liked it that we raised money to match his instrument gift. He told me that he wanted to do something bigger, so we started thinking about building the Beckman Institute. [Caltech President] Murph Goldberger and I would go down to Orange County about every week with a new plan. He rejected the first four or five until we came up with the idea of developing technology to support chemistry and biology—methods and instruments for fundamental research—and creating resource centers to house them.

Once we agreed on what the building should house, we started planning the building itself. But when we showed Arnold our design, which was four stories plus a basement, he said, "That's not big enough. You need another floor for growth." So we added a subbasement that was quickly occupied by a resource center for magnetic-resonance imaging and optical imaging that has been heavily used by biologists, chemists, and other investigators.

The Beckman Institute has done a lot over the last 25 years. But it develops technology for general research use, so it doesn't often make the headlines itself. Are you OK with that?

Many advances in science and technology have been made in the Beckman Institute over the last 25 years. The methods and instruments that have been developed in BI resource centers have made enormous impacts at the frontiers of chemistry and biology. Solar-fuels science and human biology are just two examples of areas where work in the Beckman Institute has made a big difference. And there are many more. Am I proud? You bet I am!

After a national search, Farnaz Khadem—a communications leader with two decades of experience in higher education, journalism, private industry, and the public sector—has been appointed Chief Communications Officer at Caltech.

Her appointment is effective January 11, 2016.

Khadem will lead the development of strategic communications in support of research programs as well as Institute initiatives and priorities. This will include collaboration on communications across campus and direct oversight of the Office of Strategic Communications. She will serve also as the Institute's spokesperson and primary advisor on communications matters and opportunities.

Khadem has served for the last five years as the director of communications at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a Department of Energy national laboratory operated by Stanford University. At SLAC, she developed and implemented a strategic communications plan and was responsible for managing the laboratory's entire communications structure, including news and media relations, digital communications, emergency communications, and social media.

"Farnaz emerged from the search as a remarkably good fit for Caltech and the candidate best able to further develop Caltech's communication capabilities," says Diana Jergovic, vice president for strategy implementation at Caltech. "She will guide us well in this increasingly vital role as we seek to use communications ever more effectively to engage and inspire communities of supporters locally, nationally, and globally."

"It's a privilege to join Caltech, a renowned research and educational institution. With a distinguished history of transformative discoveries, Caltech has had a lasting influence on a broad range of scientific and technical fields," says Khadem. "I look forward to working with everyone at the Institute to tell the story of how that innovation continues to have an impact on society and on all of us."

Prior to joining SLAC, Khadem held communications leadership positions at the University of California, Irvine; the World Anti-doping Agency; the Vaccine Fund; and Eli Lilly and Company. She worked for the U.S. Foreign Service Diplomatic Corps, with posts in Israel, Italy, and Washington, D.C. She holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

Ted (BS '65, MS '66) and Ginger Jenkins—longtime Caltech supporters and early employees in the semiconductor industry—have established a leadership chair for the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS). The new leadership chair is one of a set of discretionary endowments being established for Caltech's president, provost, and the leaders of each academic division.

"This new endowment will support some of the most exploratory work in the division and help secure our future," says John Grotzinger, the Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology and inaugural holder of the Ted and Ginger Jenkins Leadership Chair. "The completely flexible funding it provides—a rarity in geological and planetary sciences—will give me and future division chairs greater freedom to support highly creative and timely projects. By its nature our science involves complex interdisciplinary work for which flexible funding is ideal."

Ted Jenkins feels confident that this type of agility will give Caltech a competitive edge. "Possibilities come up that are not sufficiently well known or forecastable to pass the hurdles for a grant," he explains. "On the other hand, they could be worth a little bit of exploratory money. By applying extra resources to things that look exciting but uncertain, Caltech has come up with more than its fair share of interesting discoveries.

"These kinds of endowments for division chairs allow the whole Institute to go out and do this aggressive science. This, together with the other resources we have, puts us way, way ahead."

The story of the Jenkins gift can be traced back half a century to a moment of curiosity—and, admittedly, some jealousy—during Ted Jenkins's days as an engineering student at Caltech.

"The geology students were always going camping and taking field trips," he says. "They had great stories." So he jumped at the chance to take Ge 1, a class taught by the late Robert Sharp, whom he describes as an iconic geologist and leader.

Ted Jenkins's memory of that course inspired him and Ginger to sign up for a geology-focused Caltech Alumni Association (CAA) program in Alaska in 1997. Soon after, the couple's retirement freed them to travel often with the CAA and the Caltech Associates.

The more they learned about what was happening at Caltech, the more Ted and Ginger Jenkins got involved. Ted served as president of both the CAA and the Associates, and he became a Caltech trustee in 2006. He was also a founding member and chairman of the GPS chair's council, a volunteer leadership board.

"Ted and Ginger Jenkins have seen and supported Caltech from many angles," says Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, holder of the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "The Institute has benefited enormously from their decades of thoughtful counsel and generosity. Their extraordinary new commitment goes even farther to position us as the destination of choice for the most imaginative scholars."

With past gifts to Caltech, the couple has endowed a professorship in information science and technology, and supported diverse initiatives across campus: two astrophysical observatories, the Community Seismic Network project, schizophrenia research, a graduate fellowship and travel funds for GPS students, an annual staff prize, improvements to the Athenaeum, and the Carver Mead New Adventures Fund, which provides early support for novel projects in information science and technology.

Ted and Ginger Jenkins see giving as a way to do their part—both for the world, through the discoveries and educational experiences they enable, and for Caltech itself.

Ted Jenkins's career, and even his marriage, hinged on a single conversation that took place in a Caltech conference room. In 1966, Gordon Moore (PhD '54) paid a visit to Jenkins's adviser Carver Mead, now Caltech's Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus. Mead introduced Moore to his students, and Moore recruited Jenkins to Fairchild Semiconductor International during that same visit. During his time at Fairchild, Ted Jenkins met the woman who would become his wife. Two years later, Moore hired him again, this time as employee number 22 at the start-up that would become Intel¾where Ted Jenkins built a three-decade career and rose to the rank of vice president.

"My Caltech experience and connections have been a huge part of the means that I was able to assemble," Ted Jenkins says. "Giving back so that the activity continues is really what I like to do."

In addition to the Jenkins chair, Caltech has received funding for the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair, the Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair, the William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, the Otis Booth Leadership Chair in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Kent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy.